鼎

Mandarin · pinyin dǐng

Meanings

  1. ancient cooking cauldron with two looped handles and three or four legs
  2. pot (dialect)
  3. to enter upon a period of (classical)
  4. Kangxi radical 206
  5. one of the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes
Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

鼎
dǐng · large, three-legged bronze caldron; Kangxi radical 206; hexagram ䷱
Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3 · ding3

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

1character link4same-tone records
Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗
Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

Read this spelling in Classical texts

Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.

鼎 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 10 senses · 1 Cantonese reading

Rime Cantonese 粵拼

ding2

Cantonese word readings for 鼎. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.

CanCLID contributors · CC BY 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

character

  1. ding (ancient large, three-legged bronze cauldron for cooking or sacrificial rituals)
  2. (figurative) throne; monarchy
  3. (figurative, historical) important figures in the government
  4. (figurative) big; great
  5. (figurative) tripartite balance of forces
  6. (historical) ancient instrument of torture
  7. (literary) just (at this time); meanwhile
  8. (Min) wok
  9. 50th hexagram of the I Ching
  10. a surname

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack

鼎 · ding3
CC-CEDICT contributors and MDBG · edition 2026-10-13 · source line 124,720
Original dictionary · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & transformation details
Exact source record鼎 鼎 [ding3] /ancient cooking cauldron with two looped handles and three or four legs/pot (dialect)/to enter upon a period of (classical)/Kangxi radical 206/one of the 64 hexagrams of the Book of Changes/